In Bid to Protect ‘National Dignity,’ China Cracks Down on Foreign Place Names

A street sign in English and Chinese characters adorns a wall in the Florentia Village shopping center on the outskirts of the city of Tianjin, June 13, 2012.
Photo:
Reuters

Prepare to say farewell, Chinese citizens: You may one day no longer have a Stanford, Champs-Elysees or Central Park in your neighborhood.

For years, Chinese cities have been teeming with streets, buildings and residential compounds bearing Western names, particularly in areas geared toward upscale consumers.

But those Manhattans, Venices and other exotic locales are now in the crosshairs of the Chinese government, which on Tuesday announced a new move to “stem irregularities in naming the country's roads, bridges, buildings, and residential compounds,” according to China’s official Xinhua News Agency.

Li Liguo, China’s Minister of Civil Affairs, said that the move will target “exaggerated, foreign, bizarre and repetitive” names, as well as those that cause inconvenience to citizens, Xinhua reported.

The ministry is particularly concerned about names “that damage sovereignty and national dignity, are against socialist core values, deviate from public order and good morals, and raise strong concerns from the public,” Xinhua cited Mr. Li as saying.

The ministry said it expected to finish the name regulation project by June 2017. It isn't clear whether the ban would also include private entities such as hotels, shopping malls and restaurants.

The move comes amid abroad a broader clampdown under President Xi Jinping on Western cultural influences in China, ranging from American TV shows to foreign NGOs.

This isn't the first time Chinese authorities have taken aim at names imported from abroad. In 2013, Henan, a populous central Chinese province, banned the use of foreign names for public venues.

People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s mouthpiece newspaper, celebrated the Henan government’s clampdown at the time. “To some city planners and designers, it seems like a foreign name would bring classiness, fashion, and internationalism to the city, but is it true? In the pursuit of foreign names, it is not only easy to lose their own identities, but also it reflects a kind of laziness and a lack of confidence in their own culture,” the newspaper said in an opinion piece in 2013.

According to a directive issued in 1986 by China’s State Council, or cabinet, public places in China normally shouldn't be named after a person, and it is generally forbidden to name venues after state leaders. But the directive didn't mention foreign names. A regulation issued in 1996 by the Ministry of Civil Affairs said that venues “should not be named after foreigners or foreign places.”

The most recent move drew divided comments online. Some lauded the ministry’s scheme as long overdue, while others ridiculed it as nationalistic and formalistic.

“Democracy is a foreign word. What are you going to do with Democracy Street?” asked one commentator on China's Weibo social network, referring to a popular name for streets in Chinese cities including Wuhan, Shenyang and Nanning.

“The government should make protecting cultural relics its priority; don’t tear everything down for the sake of boosting real estate,” another wrote.

With "bizarre" names now out of bounds, perhaps some venues will follow the example of one Beijing mall and its minimalist moniker -- "The Place."